The Gun was the 86th episode of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, and also the 14th episode of the fourth season of the series. Written by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, and directed by Burt Metcalfe, it first aired on December 2, 1975.
Synopsis[]
Frank sinks to a despicable new low when he steals a wounded colonel's vintage Colt .45 revolver from the camp's gun locker, tells Margaret it's his, and then allows Radar to stand accused when the theft is discovered.
Full episode summary[]
Wounded arrive at the 4077th, including a Colonel Chaffey, who is armed with a rare, antique pistol as a side-arm. As standard procedure, Radar takes it and locks it up in the gun bin. Frank helps Radar take some guns to the bin when more wounded show up, and can't help but take a few moments to drool over it. Later, when Radar returns to the gun bin, Chaffey's pistol is gone, so he tells Potter, who starts an investigation to find it; if it remains missing, Radar could be court martialed and face 15 years in the stockade. In shock, Radar remarks, "I'll be in my thirties - that's almost dead!" Meanwhile, Frank shows Margaret an antique gun that he "got from home". He asked to have it sent to him because he "missed my old pal".
The Colonel's gun fails to turn up, and Potter has to break the bad news to Chaffey who, as expected, furiously demands Radar be charged. Though they can't prove it, Hawkeye and B.J. are convinced that Frank stole the gun, but when they confront him in the OR, Frank refuses to give an inch, pointing out that everyone is entitled to be innocent until proven guilty, adding that he deserves the same consideration the Captains want to give Radar. Annoyed that for once Frank is actually right, Hawkeye and B.J. back down.
Certain that he has been presumed guilty, Radar gets drunk, and comes back to his office to pass out. Potter gets on the PA and announces that the search for the missing gun has come up empty, and says that if the thief returns the gun, no questions will be asked. After Potter leaves, Frank sneaks in and swipes Radar's keys in an attempt to return the gun.
In the middle of the night, Radar - still drunk - wakes up and goes to Post Op to see Chaffey and protest his innocence. While there, they both hear a gun go off, causing everyone to run outside. In the confusion, Frank stealthily makes his way to Margaret's tent, with a gun shot wound to his foot. He initially says the gun went off when he was cleaning it, then tries to tell a tall tale about getting into a fight with someone he saw lurking in the Supply Shed. But Margaret coerces the truth out of him, that he stole Chaffey's gun and shot himself in the foot while trying to return it. Margaret is furious with Frank, and Frank has learned his lesson: "When you steal something, don't ever try to return it".
With the gun now returned, all of the charges against Radar are dropped. Chaffey apologizes to Radar, and Potter, realizing that the gun is more trouble than it's worth, suggests that Chaffey should donate it to a museum, but Chaffey insists on keeping the gun until he dies, and rides off.
Epilogue[]
The next day, Hawkeye and B.J. see Frank limping; he claims it's an old football injury, but they only hint that they know why. When asked what they're implying, they quip that it was just a "shot in the dark."
Research notes/Fun facts[]
- Had Frank been caught with the gun in his possession (as he rightfully should have), he would have almost certainly faced court martial charges under the UCMJ, most notably:
- Article 121 - Larceny and Wrongful Appropriation
- Article 133 - Conduct Unbecoming an Officer
- Colonel Chaffey's aide - the soldier who describes at some length how he and the others in the Jeep were injured when an American tank ran them off the road - is uncredited. The actor remains unidentified.
- The part where B.J. and Hawkeye confront Burns has two versions: in one, B.J. tells the orderlies to leave so he and Hawkeye can have a private chat with Burns; in the other, a scared Burns remarks how the last time he was alone with these two, they put whitewash on his behind; the remastered version puts those two scenes together, but cuts out the part where Frank claims that it can't be proven he took the gun.
- Potter tells a story about a time when he almost got crushed by a runaway portable latrine. He also talks about how his uncle accidentally shot off his toe and killed his cat by accident. (This portion is usually omitted in most syndicated airings.)
- One of Radar's best John Wayne impersonations: "You better believe it, mister, or you're dead where you stand." (In fact, John Wayne never said this in any movie.)
- "A shot in the dark" is an old English idiomatic expression meaning exactly what Hawkeye implies: a guess. There is also a 1964 comedy film with this phrase as its title.
- The remastered version cuts out the part where the soldier takes his rifle out of the gun bin (the scene cuts directly to Radar panicking over the Colonel's missing gun); it does add the part where Potter asks Father Mulcahy to pray for a gun.
- Anachronisms
- The Colonel's gun is described as a Colt 45, chrome with bone grips. When examining it, Margaret reads off the inscription "1884". This is an anachronism. The gun is a Colt New Service which was made 1898-1941. (The US Army adopted this model in 1909.) Hawkeye calls it the kind of gun they signed Indian Treaties with. There were no Indian Treaties after the 1870s, but Hawkeye was probably only making a joke.
- Perhaps it was unwise to have a full frame of Potter holding up his Stars and Stripes newspaper. From the headlines "Nationalists Reject Red Ultimatum," we can see that it is an anachronism: the paper is dated April 20, 1949. But of course, they were filming in the days before viewers had freeze frame and slow motion playback.
- Timeline fix
- The P.A. announces that the movie for the night is Kansas City Confidential. This came out in November 11, 1952, so we are in late 1952, early 1953. This is on track and consistent with the last fix in "Dear Peggy," but we are hurtling towards the last few months of the Korean War with 7 more seasons to go. The timeline will have to be reset soon.
- The mention of Eisenhower and Nixon is correct, as the Presidential Elections was in November 1952.
- Potter reads about 80 cadets being expelled from West Point. The actual scandal was in August 1951, when 83 West Point cadets were dismissed for cheating on their exams. So Potter is a year late here. But they probably needed this reference for a bit of deliberate irony; we have just seen Frank show off the stolen gun.
- Continuity issues
- Radar has a sister in this episode - he is usually referred to as an only child (another episode mentions a brother who didn't get drafted and works in a grocery store; yet another mentions a brother who died in his youth).
- Chopper pilot Smilin' Jack Mitchell can be seen in the Officers Club and later by the camp bulletin board. He will be grounded and sent home 8 episodes later in the episode "Smilin' Jack". No problem if you watch in broadcast order, but there will be a discontinuity if watched in production order, because "Smilin' Jack" was produced very early in Season 4, 8 episodes before "The Gun". Episodes with a lot of outdoor scenes like "Smilin' Jack" were usually produced early in the season to take advantage of longer hours of daylight.
"The Gun" is the first episode of Season 4 to air on Tuesday night (9:00 pm ET), as CBS returned M*A*S*H to its formerly-solid Tuesday night lineup. At the beginning of Season 4, CBS punished M*A*S*H for its Season 3 shock finale "Abyssinia, Henry" by moving it to Friday night (first at 8pm, then at 8:30pm ET); this maneuver caused the show to fall to #15 in the Nielsen ratings as it was pitted against NBC's strong Friday night lineup of Sanford and Son followed by Chico and the Man. After it was moved back to Tuesday nights, M*A*S*H returned to the Top 10 and remained there for the rest of its run - even after permanently moving to Monday nights during Season 6.
Bloopers/Goofs
- After Colonel Chaffey leaves, Radar and Colonel Potter exchange glasses, after they realize that Potter put the wrong ones beside Radar's cot as he was putting him to bed. Potter never took his own glasses off in that scene, making the switch impossible - and implausible.
- The scene in which Radar drunkenly confronts Chaffey happens after Potter tucks him in, and Radar is wearing the (presumably) correct glasses (of course, the Corporal could have been so drunk, he wouldn't have noticed).
Guest stars/Recurring cast[]
- Warren Stevens as Colonel Chaffey
- William Christopher as Father Mulcahy
- Uncredited appearances:
- Todd Susman as the P.A. announcer
- Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Kellye
- Jeff Maxwell - cleaning up the O.R.
- Gwen Farrell
- Jo Ann Thompson - probable. In post op.
- Patricia Stevens - probable. With Smilin' Jack in O club.
- Roy Goldman
- Dennis Troy
Gallery[]
